Currently Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009, is auctioning off more than 4,000 remaining patents, and analysts say that hoard is also worth more than $1 billion. (The auction, run by Lazard and Global IP Law Group, has been underway for about seven months, sources said.)

According to Reuters, two sources with knowledge of the auction process say there has already been one round of bidding, and the Nortel patents are now being grouped into six technology catgories. (The patents likely to draw the highest bids relate to third- and fourth-generation wireless technologies, such as Long Term Evolution [LTE], and of the 4,000 patents being acutioned, 7 are critical to LTE.) Final bids are supposedly due the first half of 2011, with primary bidders assumed to be Apple, Microsoft and Motorola.